Unpaid part time internship in a law firm

[Anonymous]

Definitely work out the legality piece of it but if you can get past that, I would encourage her to tell the attorneys that she is planning to go to law school and wants to learn as much as possible. Ask them to keep her in mind for learning opportunities. Can she sit in on meetings / calls? Attend hearings / negotiations, etc.? Will an attorney grab lunch with her and discuss the thinking behind how they handle cases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if it's really more of a job shadowing situation, but someone (maybe OP?) decided it would sound better to call it an internship?

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if she thinks she is interested in law school, any experience in a law firm is valuable. Even just to see the culture and lifestyle of the lawyers and ultimately partners particularly if she plans to take loans to finance law school. The cost is steep and for those paying themselves, best to go in eyes wide open. There are many lawyers out there chained to the job due to loans.

+1

The value for her is not in the "work" she does or what she learns from those tasks.

This is all about having moments to talk with the lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they feel about it. What's it REALLY like to be a lawyer? What distinguishes the happiest and most successful lawyers from the rest? What do they wish they knew when they were her age? What might they have done differently or better?

Some of this will come out in small moments of working together. But more likely, she'll have to be a bit more proactive.

I'd encourage her to think of this expeience as a springboard for light "informational interviewing." Have her make a list of the attorneys and encourage her to invite them to coffee one at a time over the course of the summer to "pick their brains about the legal profession." Hearing professionals' first-hand reflections can be super valuable.

Also, she should ask each of them "who else would you recommend I talk with" to learn more about the profession. If each person there connects her with a friend or two from a different firm or legal market, she can branch out to explore and learn much more.

If she doesn't already have a LinkedIn profile, encourage her to create one. Super basic is fine. Not to be used to proactively contact people she doesn't know. Best to use it to "connect" on there AFTER she speaks with people, especially any new connections her summer colleagues create for her. It's like a self-automating "rolodex" - a way to find people later, including if they switch jobs down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD, a college sophomore, was super late to apply for internships for personal reasons. Most positions had been filled long ago. Luckily she was offered an unpaid part time internship by a small law firm as a paralegal. She intends to take it as it’s something she’s interested in as a pre-law student and part time schedule actually works better for her. It’d be sweeter if she could get paid, but it’s not like she has bills to pay. Do you have any advice or tips for her to make it a positive and rewarding experience?

Ironically, that is illegal.

Illegal UNLESS she can obtain college credit for her time at the law firm.

Yes, regulatory capture is legal

[Anonymous]

It's legal if they charge a fee for training and pay her for time worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be advised -- unless the law firm is a non-profit, they'll be breaking minimum wage laws by failing to pay her. So they don't seem super-ethical to begin with, and I'd be cautious here.

That said, since she won't be paid maybe they'll make extra effort to give her real and challenging work. (Most internships are boring grunt work.)

I would advise her to give it a week or two max -- if she doesn't feel like she'd gaining valuable experience, consider quitting.

Eh, if it's a small firm that doesn't do work related to employment issues they may not be aware of the rules about internships--DH had his own small firm for about 10 years and we outsourced everything related to payroll, etc. because there are a lot of details that we just weren't even aware of.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice! As a person not familiar with the law field I appreciate your perspectives and insight.

[Anonymous]

Is the firm Dewey, Cheatum and Howe?

[Anonymous]

Lawyer here.

I know nothing of employment law, but I still don't like anything about this. It's exploitive. If they are a law firm, they can pay her. If their situation is so financially precarious that they can't pay a summer student minimum wage, she doesn't want anything to do with that place anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lawyer here.

I know nothing of employment law, but I still don't like anything about this. It's exploitive. If they are a law firm, they can pay her. If their situation is so financially precarious that they can't pay a summer student minimum wage, she doesn't want anything to do with that place anyway.

In the past, I know of a couple of solo attorneys who wanted law school students as interns with zero compensation beyond a promised letter of recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the firm Dewey, Cheatum and Howe?

Haha…. Super old law school joke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the firm Dewey, Cheatum and Howe?

Haha…. Super old law school joke

Lawyers never grow old. They just lose their appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be advised -- unless the law firm is a non-profit, they'll be breaking minimum wage laws by failing to pay her. So they don't seem super-ethical to begin with, and I'd be cautious here.

That said, since she won't be paid maybe they'll make extra effort to give her real and challenging work. (Most internships are boring grunt work.)

I would advise her to give it a week or two max -- if she doesn't feel like she'd gaining valuable experience, consider quitting.

This. She should take the job and then file a complaint and get paid.

[Anonymous]

Ethics aside, its a part time gig for a few months that she can put on her resume for next year’s recruiting. That’s probably better than the alternative at this point

[Anonymous]

When I did criminal defense work, I took on unpaid interns. Was it legal? Idk, but I went out of my way to make it useful to them. I scheduled hearings on days when they were in, I got them approved to go into the prisons with me, I looked for discovery that was interesting and asked them to review it. They actually saw the life of a defense attorney.